impossibility

[im-pos-uh-bil-i-tee, im-pos-]

noun

plural

impossibilities 

1. condition or quality of being impossible.

2. something impossible.

impossibility

/ ɪmˌpɒsəˈbɪlɪtɪ, ˌɪmpɒs- /

noun

1. the state or quality of being impossible

2. something that is impossible

Word History and Origins

Origin of impossibility¹

1350–1400; Middle English impossibilite < Late Latin impossibilitās. See im- ², possibility

Example Sentences

She said: "I went back to work post maternity leave. It has always felt impossible. Every day has felt like an exercise in logistical impossibilities, and we got through it."

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In such an environment, a 3% inflation rate is less a policy failure than an adaptation—the by-product of an economy adjusting to a chronic government deficit and the political impossibility of fiscal consolidation.

Read more on Barron's

But escape from the irritations of that companionship seems a still bleaker prospect—and an impossibility.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It also feels like this enormous amount of pressure and impossibility, and that you’re in a David and Goliath struggle.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

To Andrew Friedman, something like this was a virtual impossibility.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• futility